Late Eighties Fender "Under The Bed" 'Mary Kaye' Precision Bass

This 13-inch-wide bass guitar weighs just 9.40 lbs. and has a wonderful fat nut width of 1 3/4 inches and a full bass scale length of 34 inches. Solid ash body contoured on back and lower bass bout, one-piece maple neck, and 'slab' rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and pearloid dot position markers. Single circular string tree. Fender cloverleaf tuners without "trademark". Headstock decal with Fender logo in silver with black trim and "Precision Bass" in black beneath it. Four-bolt neckplate with the serial number ("V 024223") between the top two screws. One split black eight-pole-piece pickup with an output of 10.30k. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with thirteen screws. Two controls (one volume and one tone) on lower treble bout. Knurled gold-plated knobs with flat tops. Combined four-saddle bridge/tailpiece and both the original bridge and pickup covers. The end of the neck is stamped in black "Nov 9 1988", the underside of the neck is stamped in black on a white label "F. ARELLANO", and the neck pocket is stamped in black "Jan 20 1988". All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in mint (9.50) condition and is complete with two original Fender hang tags (one dated Dec 21, 1988). Housed in the original Fender 'Tweed' hardshell case with reddish orange plush lining (9.50).

This 'Mary Kaye' version of the Precision Bass was produced in very limited numbers by the Fender Custom Shop when it first opened in late 1987. These are wonderful re-issues and are fast becoming collectibles in their own right. This twenty year old example is "new old stock" and has never been played.

The Precision Bass, with its revolutionary new shape, was launched in 1951, and originally had a slab body. It was not until 1954, with the introduction of the Stratocaster, that Fender contoured the body. All early Precision Basses had one-piece maple necks, but in 1959, a slab-board rosewood fretboard was introduced. Many players missed the comfort of the maple fretboard, so from around 1967 to 1969, a one-piece maple neck was offered as an option. Our guitar has an extremely rare maple-cap neck and fretboard, which was obviously specially ordered at the time. We know that maple-cap Telecasters were available to special order from around 1966, but we have never seen or heard of another 1965 maple-cap Precision Bass.

Until the Precision, the bass was an upright acoustic instrument that was difficult to hear and cumbersome to transport. Leo Fender's invention allowed musicians to hold their instrument like a guitar, opening the bass world to curious guitar players, and allowing bass players a level of freedom they had not yet encountered. Due to the bass's solid body construction, it could be amplified to any level, giving it new found aural presence. In its first fifteen years of development, the Precision Bass changed as much as the music it influenced and the musicians it inspired, having been played by everyone from The Shadows to Led Zeppelin.